Reaperlings
by Meiousei Dark
Summary: When he is assigned to take in three small children, Undertaker is unaware that they'd be the best things that would ever happen to him. Protecting them from danger seems easy enough as well, but when Grell, Ronald, and William are kidnapped, Undertaker is willing to get them back with his Death Scythe and killer smile. Nothing will stop him from protecting his little ones.
1. Chapter 1: The Mysterious Mortician

Chapter 1: The Mysterious Mortician

It was one fairly normal day in 19th Century Great Britain. The sun was already setting, so those who wanted to get certain things done before sunset would have to hurry. A man and a woman were walking down a certain street, going to handle business affairs. They stopped at a shop with walls painted purple and a sign that read 'Undertaker'.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" The woman asked.

"Of course this is the right place. The Undertaker helped my father get ready for his funeral. He'll do the same for your mother as well." The man answered.

The woman only nodded and the two of them entered the shop. It seemed freakier on the inside than on the outside. At least they could tell it was a mortuary. "Excuse me, is anyone here? The man called.

He tried again. "Hello, we're here on business."

The shop was silent yet again. They figured that the owner was out, so they decided to come back and try again later. They were about to leave, when they heard a coffin door open, causing their blood to run cold. An eye peered out as the rest of the coffin door opened.

"Why hellllllo, my dear customers. What brings you into my humble shop today?"

The man was freaking out internally, but tried to maintain a normal appearance on the outside. "Y-Yes. We've come here because we need you to take in my late mother-in-law."

The Undertaker stepped out of the coffin. "Why of cooooorse. I would loooove to take in a new guest."

The Undertaker turned to the man with a bone chilling smile. "But I charge for my services, you see."

The man had to work hard to keep his composure. "Y-Yes, of course. How much is it?"

"Oh, I have no need for money as I'm not a big fan of The Queen at all. You must make me laugh in exchange for my services."

The man blinked. "H-How do we do that?"

"That is for you to figure out. If you can come up with a way to amuse me, then I will take in your mother-in-law as my guest."

"U-Uh, okay, let's see, uh..."

"Oh, I know" The woman said. "I have just the thing."

A few moments later, The Undertaker was just bursting with laughter. He had to wipe the tears from his eyes. "That was hilarious. Your wife is incredible at telling jokes."

The man laughed nervously. "Heh, yeah I guess she is."

The woman smiled. "Why thank you."

The rest of the business arrangements were taken care off and the couple left the shop. "Come back soooon! Maybe I could have you two as guests sometime."

The Undertaker retreated back inside his shop and closed it for the night. Being a Grim Reaper, The Undertaker needed sleep to run on, unlike those demons. However, he was planning on staying up some of the night and getting the majority of his work done.

He absolutely loved his job and he wouldn't give it up for the world. Plus, many of his guests were victims of a murder, so that makes him a good source of information for The Queen's Watchdog. He went back to attending to his guest who was currently on the table.

* * *

The next afternoon, The Undertaker had decided to take a nap inside one of the coffins and maybe even freak out the next person that walked in. He found a simple joy in scaring people, as he considered it amusing.

Undertaker woke up once he sensed the presence of someone else entering his shop, and although he loved his job, they would be receiving a real scare for waking him from his nap. However, this customer seemed different from the others. His senses told him that whoever walked in was not human. Still, the coffin door creaked open and he saw a man standing there, waiting for him to fully appear.

"I need to have a word with you." The man said.

"Yeeeeeesss?" The Undertaker asked when he stepped out of the coffin.

Upon further inspection, The Undertaker saw that the man had greenish gold eyes and glasses, which could only mean that he was a fellow Grim Reaper. "I haven't seen a Grim Reaper in years. What brings you here today?"

The Reaper adjusted his glasses and kept his cool demeanor. "We of the Grim Reaper Dispatch would like to ask a favor of you."

The man got out a clip board and explained the situation further. "As you know, whenever a Reaper is born, they start out as children and they are cared for by the Grim Reaper Childcare Services."

The Undertaker nodded. "Yes, I know. I went through the process when I was but a Reaperling."

The Reaper nodded and continued. "The Childcare Division is overflowing with children, so we would like you to take care of three of them while everything gets sorted out."

The Undertaker's never ending smile, turned into an expression of confusion. "Children?"

The Reaper nodded. The Undertaker motioned for the Reaper to look around the room. "But this is a mortuary. It's not exactly fit for children."

The Reaper nodded and adjusted his glasses. "There are other rooms, aren't there?"

"W-Well, yes, but-"

"Then it's settled." The Reaper said with his stoic look. "They will arrive within the next week. You have until then to make this place suitable for children."

That was the last thing the Reaper said before he left. The Undertaker was still left in the dust, and he never felt like this. He had to make the place suitable for children. How was he supposed to do that to a mortuary, a place purposely filled with dead bodies? Well, they were Reaper children, so they would be exposed to it eventually.

Still though, it just didn't seem right to expose children to things like that. The Undertaker took a look at the coffin he was previously sleeping in and decided to go back inside for another nap. He figured that the nap would clear his head and he could figure out what to do later. He stepped inside and shut the door, seriously considering closing up for the day to take a long nap.


	2. Chapter 2: Child Reapers

Chapter 2: Child Reapers

Alternate Title: Koshinigami

For the next couple of days, Undertaker was busy figuring out how to make the place suitable for kids. It was not easy, at all. First of all, there were too many coffins, which he would have to move into the basement to make more room. As for the dead bodies, well, he was going to have to move them somewhere else and work on them when the children were asleep or something.

On the other hand, these were Reaper children. When they grew up, they would have to join the Grim Reaper Dispatch and collect the souls of the freshly dead. Undertaker had grown weary of that process long ago, so he retired in order to start doing something he actually enjoyed. He used one of the empty rooms he had at his disposal and used it for their bedrooms. He had to get the beds moved in, but it was pretty easy for him to accomplish, despite being an ancient Reaper.

And along with the responsibility of taking care of the children, he would also have to teach them the ways of the Shinigami. Since they wouldn't be learning at a basic Reaperling school for a while, he would have to teach them all he could until then. It wouldn't be so hard, since he was, after all, an ancient, who knew more about reaping souls than most of the others.

Undertaker sighed. He still had a few more days to get everything ready, but he was unsure how everything would go once he met the children he was supposed to look after. Since Reaper children had already lived once as humans, their personalities were slightly more mature than normal children, but they still were, in fact, children. And children didn't necessarily have an easy time hiding their feelings.

Another thing that weighed on his mind is how he would come off to them. He knew that his personality could come of as a bit strange to other people, but that was just how he was. He couldn't help it. He sighed again as he ate another of his favorite bone shaped biscuits. They always seemed to relax him in stressful situations, not that he had many of those.

Most of the time he was calm and relaxed, but there was occasionally, something that had him worried. Even his coffin naps weren't helping, and they always helped. True, he did have an actual bed, but for some reason, he always preferred coffins. His guests seemed to find them comfortable enough, after all. As he was working on his next guest, he was slowly figuring out that not even his most beloved job was doing anything to get his mind off of it.

The woman was incredibly beautiful, but he wasn't thinking much of it. He had three more guests to attend to that day, so he had to finish this one in order to get done before nightfall, so he could go to sleep. All he felt like doing at the moment was sleeping, even though the naps still weren't helping. He had to sleep sometime, though.

The Reaper Dispatch had always tried its best to keep everything in order and smoothly running, in order for their jobs to continue, resulting in them eventually being forgiven. However, there was the occasional thing that went wrong and they had to take some different measures to fix the problem.

Aside from the occasional screw up, the Grim Reaper Dispatch was the smoothest running business that the Undertaker knew of, and only a handful of humans knew it existed. Granted, most of them died afterwards, but they still knew of it. Undertaker could remember working as an active Reaper like it was yesterday. The process of collecting souls got boring after awhile, so he ended up retiring.

He wasn't sure what he had to do, exactly, to be forgiven, but he figured he might learn it eventually. Maybe. This guest was finally finished, which meant that he could go ahead and move onto the next one. The afternoon was slowly turning into evening, so it was about time for him to move on anyway. Undertaker sighed as he looked outside at the now setting sun. It was probably going to be a long next few days.

* * *

The next few days did, in fact, go by slowly, but the day that the children were supposed to arrive seemed to come quicker than expected. Undertaker was ready, though. Well, sort off. However, the children didn't come until later in the afternoon. He was sitting on one of the coffins, eating his bone shaped biscuits, when the same Reaper from the other day walked inside, accompanied by three small children.

He stood to greet the Reaper and examine the three children. One of them had long hair that was both red and spiky, wearing glasses that had chains on them. Another had shorter, slightly dark blonde hair and was wearing black rimmed glasses. The third one had black slicked back hair and was also wearing black rimmed glasses. Undertaker turned back to the Reaper as he held up some papers at eye level and began reading the information off of them.

"Alright, Undertaker, I have to present to you this information on the chosen children. First up, Grell Sutcliff. Date of birth, April 15th, 1845, Date of rebirth, September 4th, 1875, Blood type, B, Medical problems, none. Next up, Ronald Knox. Date of birth, January 26th, 1845, Date of rebirth, May 6th, 1875, Blood type, AB, Medical problems, none. Last but not least is William Spears. Date of birth, October 30th, 1845, Date of rebirth, July 14th, 1875, Blood type, O, Medical problems, none."

He looked back up at the Undertaker. "Everything you need to know is on these papers. All past medical information and C.O.S's are there for you to use."

The Reaper looked down at the children, as they had no idea what C.O.S even meant, and they wouldn't know for quite awhile, until they were ready. He looked back at Undertaker. "I assume everything is ready."

Undertaker nodded. "Yes, it is."

The other Reaper nodded and adjusted his glasses. "Okay. According to your record, you are famous for reaping souls such as Mary Antoinette, and you are famous throughout the Reaper Dispatch, including having your own statue in the main lobby."

Undertaker nodded. "I will not deny it."

"It is because of your capabilities that we have seen you fit for this job."

The Reaper adjusted his glasses and gave Undertaker a stone cold stare. "Remember, you must not let any harm come to them, do you understand?"

Undertaker nodded and countered the glare with a smile. "Of course."

The Reaper nodded and adjusted his glasses. "Very well then, you may contact the Reaper Childcare Services if you are in need of anything. I leave the children to you now."

And with that said, the Reaper left, leaving Undertaker with three children to take care of. He turned back to the children. The one with the red hair smiled, revealing his sharp teeth, a feature that Shinigami didn't typically have, and held his hand out. "Hi, I'm Grell, what's your name?"

Undertaker's smile grew wider and he knelt to where he was eye level with the red haired Reaper. "You can call me Undertaker."

The blonde Reaper spoke up. "And I'm Ronald. Nice to meet you."

The two of them shook hands. "Nice to meet you too."

"And this one over here is William. He's a bit shy, but he's nice once you get to know him." The red Reaper introduced.

William did seem to be a bit shy, shyer than the others, but he held out his hand for Undertaker to shake. "I-I'm William. It's nice to meet you."

As Undertaker shook William's hand, he was starting to think, that maybe, this wouldn't be so bad after all.


	3. Chapter 3: Gettign To Know You

Chapter 3: Getting To Know You

The next couple of days went pretty well. Undertaker had gotten to know the kids a little bit more and they had gotten to know him a little. From what he was able to gather, the red head, Grell, was curious and seemed to be interested in a lot of things. The blonde, Ronald, was a bit laid back, but he still had his fair share of energy. William on the other hand, was shy and didn't really like to talk much. That was just fine with Undertaker, though.

He was a bit worried at first because he didn't exactly know what they would think of him, which was strange since he didn't typically care what anyone though of him. Reaper Children were different from Human Children, however. A normal human child most likely wouldn't be able to stand the sight of him, but Reapers were different. Their tolerance was much higher than a humans, since they had already been reborn once and nothing really scared them anymore.

There was the occasional exception, however. Most Reapers tended to get pretty stoic, which was one of the reasons Undertaker had retired. He was just lucky that the children weren't the same way. "Mr. Undertaker, what's that?" The red headed Reaper asked, pointing at a jar filled with bone shaped cookies.

Undertaker smiled. "Those are cinnamon flavored cookies. You can take as many as you like."

Grell pulled one out of the jar and tried it. "It tastes good." Grell commented as he took another one.

"That's the entire point." Undertaker said.

"Mr. Undertaker, what is this?" Ronald asked from another area of the room.

Undertaker could see that he was referring to a coffin. "That is a coffin." Undertaker answered honestly.

"What is it for?" He asked curiously.

Undertaker found himself reluctant in answering. "Well, you see, they are a very important part of my job."

Ronald only shrugged. "I don't really see why, but okay."

Undertaker really didn't want to tell him the reason. It just didn't feel right to him, and he didn't know why. He was, however, surprised as he didn't expect them to be so curious about everything. Reapers weren't typically curious about anything, except for a select few. He found himself happy about the fact that they were curious, and he was sincerely hoping that they would stay this way.

Even though they were a bit smarter and wiser, they still didn't know most things, and it was now Undertaker's job to teach them, slowly but surely. Another thing about Reaper children, was that they were incredibly fast learners. They could easily pick things up and read between the lines, although sometimes, there were things that they struggled with, depending on the child.

Undertaker wasn't aware that any of them had such difficulties, but he hadn't read their files yet, so he couldn't know for sure. Overall, the last few days had been good, and Undertaker would hope for more good days like this.

* * *

Later on in the night, the children were fast asleep in their rooms. Undertaker was up, finishing his guest. He would have to hurry before his tiredness consumed him whole. Staying up till midnight was usually no problem for him, however. This was his last guest until another one was brought in, which wouldn't be until tomorrow. The children weren't oblivious to what his job was, they just never saw him do it. They figured that it made sense that a retired Reaper would continue to work with the dead.

If he wasn't done within the next thirty minutes, then he would consider retiring for the night. His latest guest had died of a gunshot wound. There were a lot of mafias that hung around in the Underworld, so dying of gunshot wounds weren't that uncommon. It just so happened the most of his guests were victims or members of the Underworld's mafias.

Of course there were others, such as victims of serial killers, and those who had come face to face with an unfortunate accident. Back when he worked on the field, he saw all sorts of deaths and reaped all kinds of souls. The world had a wide variety of each of those things. Despite what many legends about Grim Reapers said, they were not the ones who chose who died. That was the job of the higher ups, who gave them their lists.

They also did not possess people, making them want to commit suicide, contrary to Oriental beliefs, and any Reaper who went around killing people of their own accord would be punished. Undertaker had never done anything like that on the field, but he had known some Reapers who had, and it did not go well for them. He would never forget one experience in which some younger Reapers he had known tired t rebel against the Dispatch, and those of the Management Division were not at all thrilled.

It seemed to Undertaker that the higher a Reaper ranked in The Dispatch, the more stoic and serious they were. It was always such a tragedy. There was once a time when Undertaker became as high as the Management Division, and everyday, he was always surrounded by these stoic Reapers who never smiled, laughed, or anything.

As he was lost in his thoughts, he didn't realize as he had already finished his last guest. He decided to go ahead and retire for the night, as he was already pretty tired. He carefully inserted his guest inside a coffin, and then approached the one that he had picked out for himself.

Each and every one of those coffins were made from special wood imported all the way from Wales, and he put them together himself. He wouldn't think of using any other coffins for his guests, as the ones he made were perfect for them. He opened the coffin door and stepped inside, ready to let sleep conume him.


End file.
